Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a rent recognition database to be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The Government believes that it is right that a history of paying rent should be recorded and recognised in tenants’ credit scores and in affordability assessments.

At Autumn Budget 2017, the Government announced the Rent Recognition Challenge, a £2m competition challenging the UK’s world-leading FinTech firms to develop innovative solutions to enable rental tenants to share their rental payment data with lenders and Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs). CRAs maintain a database on consumers’ credit history, and this information is used to help lenders make an assessment of how likely the individual is to repay any credit that is offered.

The 6 successful applicants selected to receive an initial round of grant funding were announced in March.